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This article is more than 1 year old
Google, Verizon offer net neutrality proposal
A free internet — except when it isn't
Google and Verizon have hammered out a joint proposal for the FCC and internet industry in the hopes of ending the roiling network neutrality debate.
It won't.
"Crafting a compromise proposal has not been an easy process, and we have certainly had our differences along the way," wrote Google director of public policy Alan Davidson and Verizon executive vice president of public affairs, policy, and communications Tom Tauke in a joint statement outlining the goals of the "suggested legislative framework."
"But what has kept us moving forward is our mutual interest in a healthy and growing Internet that can continue to be a laboratory for innovation," they continued.
Fine words from Mssrs. Davidson and Tauke, to be sure, but a close look at the proposal uncovers some troubling suggestions.
The two-page seven-point plan offers a bundle of carrots and sticks designed to allay fears of a multi-tiered internet in which some web content is more equal — and more costly — than others. And for today's internet, the proposal has arguable value. For the internet of the future, however, not so much.
To mollify those who object to a multi-tiered internet in which content providers can pay for preferred, prioritized service, Davidson and Tauke note that the proposal includes a "new nondiscrimination principle [that] includes a presumption against prioritization of internet traffic — including paid prioritization."
Plus: "In addition to not blocking or degrading of internet content and applications, wireline broadband providers also could not favor particular Internet traffic over other traffic. "
All well and good to net-neut supporters, as are other aspects of the plan that include a higher degree of service-quality transparency and clarification of the FCC's enforcement powers — including the ability to impose $2m fines on "bad actors".
However, slipped in at the tail end of the proposal's suggested strictures against prioritization is an unexplained escape clause: "Prioritization of internet traffic would be presumed inconsistent with the non-discrimination standard, but the presumption could be rebutted."
The framework doesn't specify what grounds such a rebuttal could claim, or what agency would referee such an argument. Presumably it would be the FCC — but as recent US history has shown, the Commission's choice of whether to prefer business interests or consumer protection is, to put it kindly, malleable.
Notice also that Davidson and Tauke specifically referred to "wireline broadband providers" — and there's a simple reason for that specificity: "We both recognize that wireless broadband is different from the traditional wireline world," they write, "in part because the mobile marketplace is more competitive and changing rapidly.
"In recognition of the still-nascent nature of the wireless broadband marketplace, under this proposal we would not now apply most of the wireline principles to wireless, except for the transparency requirement."
The future is inarguably a wireless one — and although the framework specifies that the US Government Accountability Office should issue an annual report on "whether or not current policies are working to protect consumers", the proposal gives no guidance on how, when, or in what way wireless broadband might ever be included in the wireline guidelines.
Equally — perhaps more — concerning to those who want a flat-internet future is the proposal's clear statement that its "open Internet" strictures would only apply to current technologies and internet useage patterns.
"Our proposal would allow broadband providers to offer additional, differentiated online services, in addition to the Internet access and video services (such as Verizon's FIOS TV) offered today," Davidson and Tauke write. Those services would be exempt from the "paid prioritization" prohibition.
No attempt is made in either Davidson and Tauke's explanation or in the proposal itself to outline the scope of "additional, differentiated online services," although a few examples are given. "Health care monitoring, the smart grid, advanced educational services, or new entertainment and gaming options," apparently.
Examples don't define a range — and one could, of course, drive the proverbial truck through that "entertainment" loophole.
Call us cautious or call us cynical, but The Reg finds itself concerned that what Google and Verizon's proposal actually defines is a future in which carriers could redefine their services as "differentiated", thus removing them from the proposal's oversight.
At minimum, providers could simply focus on the newer, more lucrative, services and let their "open Internet" services die on the vine. The proposal does note that: "The FCC would also monitor the development of these services to make sure they don't interfere with the continued development of Internet access services," but the FCC's willingness to inject itself into regulation, as we mentioned above, correlates highly with the political winds.
As is true with everything these days in the good ol' US of A, it all comes down to politics — and as The Reg noted last week when Google and Verizon denied that a tiered-internet deal was in the works, over four times as much money was spent on lobbying by anti net-neuts versus pro net-neuts. That amount of cash — $19.7m versus $4.7m in the first quarter of 2010 alone — buys plenty of wind. ®


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Arbaeen marks 40 days after the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS), the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and third Shia Imam.
Each year, a huge crowd of Shias march toward Karbala, Iraq, where the holy shrine of Imam Hussein (AS) is located, to perform mourning rites.
In the past few years, around 20 million pilgrims from all over the world, including Iran, took part in the mourning ceremonies in Iraqi holy cities marking Arbaeen.
This year, Arbaeen falls on Sunday, November 20.
American filmmaker Kathryn Ann Bigelow is going to produce a film on the event with a $200 million budget, al-Alam news network reported.
She will travel to Basra, southern Iraq, to follow the pilgrims who march toward Karbala on Arbaeen.
Bigelow is the first woman who has received an Academy Award for Best Director for The Hurt Locker.

subset: commoncrawl


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Video review has created confusion and brought questions at the Women's World Cup.
The Video Assistant Referee, or VAR, was integrated into the men's World Cup in Russia last year, leading to calls for it to also be used for the women's tournament in France. But it certainly hasn't gone as smoothly as it did for the men.
VAR has already led to a change in the rules for the knockout stage of the tournament. Some have suggested there has been an overreliance on the technology, and there have been complaints that it is causing delays and interrupting the flow of the game.
FIFA officials insisted Wednesday that the system is working as intended.
"The VAR cannot be blind, cannot ignore. If you have a tool that offers you the possibility to check, you have to check," said Pierluigi Collina, chairman of FIFA's refereeing committee.
Through 44 matches at the Women's World Cup, there were 441 incidents checked through the course of play and 29 VAR reviews, FIFA said. That's one review per 1.52 matches. Of those reviews, 25 resulted in decisions being changed. Four were confirmed.
There have been a record 23 penalty kicks heading into the quarterfinals, surpassing the 22 taken across the entire 2011 World Cup in Canada. Eleven were awarded with VAR assistance. Three were cancelled after VAR review.
News, videos, and rumors on the Boston Celtics, New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox, and Boston Bruins, powered by NBC Sports Boston.
Collina maintains that VAR helps referees by making sure calls are correct in the high-pressure setting of the World Cup while also protecting teams from bad calls that might impact advancement in the tournament.
Kari Seitz, FIFA's senior manager of refereeing, insisted VAR is not changing the way games are being officiated.
"We instruct the referees to referee as they would referee (without VAR), and that is really a critical point. They are out there officiating like they would officiate with or without VAR. That hasn't changed. Refereeing remains the same, but with the parachute, with the opportunity to correct those big mistakes, or those things the video evidence shows us," Seitz said.
Last week, the use of VAR prompted a rules change going into the round of 16.
The rule was meant to give goalkeepers more flexibility, making them keep just one foot, not two, on the goal-line during penalty kicks. But the use of VAR strictly enforced the rule, with goalkeepers given little time to adjust. FIFA feared more goalkeepers could be penalized and sent off, a concern because no substitutes are allowed during shootouts.
So FIFA received approval from the game's lawmaking body last week to suspend the requirement that goalkeepers be shown yellow cards for stepping off the goal-line during penalty shootouts, which means goalkeepers can only be booked at the tournament for stepping off the line during a penalty kick in normal time. The kick will still be retaken, however.
The law could be revisited at future meetings of the International Football Association Board, which includes four FIFA delegates and a representative from each of the four British associations.
"I mean they're calling it very tight and I guess we didn't really know coming into the tournament how tight they were really going to call it," U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher said at the end of the group stage. "I think the last few games has obviously shown what they can and will call. So I think it's just something to keep in the back of my mind, trying not to dwell on it or think about it too much and have it affect what I'm doing and how I'm playing. But it's obviously something you have to be aware of."
The rule became an issue in the group stage when Scotland goalkeeper Lee Alexander saved a penalty kick by Argentina's Florencia Bonsegundo in stoppage time. A VAR review showed Alexander had moved just inches off her line and Bonsegundo scored on the retake, tying the game at 3-3 and scuttling Scotland's hopes of going through to the knockout stage.
"I think most of the problems came after Argentina versus Scotland because of how the match went — 3-0 to 3-3. A few days before the same penalty kick was retaken in Jamaica versus Italy and nobody complained," Collina said. "We have to enforce the rules."
At the men's World Cup, FIFA claimed afterward that 99.3 percent of "match-changing" plays were called correctly.
Collina presented figures that showed VAR was used 20 times in 64 matches in Russia, with 17 decisions overturned and three confirmed.
Seven penalties were awarded in Russia because of VAR. Two goals were given after being initially ruled offside, including one by South Korea that helped to eliminate world champion Germany.
AP Global Soccer Writer Rob Harris contributed to this report.


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rott (Rise of the Triad, first person shooter game)
Rise of the Triad is a high quality, fast scrolling first-person
perspective 3D action game. It includes a lot of destructive enemies,
an arsenal of weapons from simple pistols to missile launchers,
life-preserving armor, traps and ambushes galore.
WARNING: Rise of the Triad features wanton and gratuitous violence.
In order to play the game, you need the data files from either the retail
or shareware (demo) version of the game. See README_gamedata.txt for
details. If you want to include the shareware game data in your Slackware
package, download the file http://icculus.org/rott/share/1rott13.zip
and place it in the directory with the SlackBuild script, before running
the script.
Multiplayer games (aka comm-bat) are NOT truly supported: you can start up
a comm-bat game, but you can only play by yourself (no actual networking
code exists in this version of the game).
For more information, see http://www.3drealms.com/rott/
Maintained by: B. Watson
Keywords: fps,rise,icculus,triad,apogee,3drealms
ChangeLog: rott
Download SlackBuild:
rott.tar.gz.asc (FAQ)
(the SlackBuild does not include the source)
Individual Files: |
README_gamedata.txt |
doinst.sh |
manpage.diff |
rott.SlackBuild |
rott.info |
rott.sh |
slack-desc |
© 2006-2024 SlackBuilds.org Project. All rights reserved.
Slackware® is a registered trademark of
Patrick Volkerding
Linux® is a registered trademark of
Linus Torvalds


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Show All Answers
All visitors MUST be on the inmates approved visitor list.
All visitors should arrive and register ten minutes prior to the scheduled visit time.
Visiting days and hours are assigned by the housing unit and cell the inmate occupies.
Visitors will be required to produce photo identification prior to visiting.
Visitors under the age of eighteen must be accompanied by a parent or guardian and must be a child, stepchild or grandchild of the inmate they are visiting.
Visitors will supervise their children at all times
Visitors are required to be orderly, not take pictures, not smoke, not bring in cell phones or any other contraband into the facility.
No foul or abusive language may be used at any time.
Visitors must be dressed appropriately at all times. Discretion in this matter will be left up to correctional staff.
During an emergency, visiting may be terminated and visitors directed to leave the building.
Citizens that have been Inmates are required to wait for 1 full year after incarceration to visit other Inmates.
Any violation of the visiting rules may result in temporary or permanent termination of visiting privileges.
Visitors may be subjected to a "pat down" search by law enforcement if there is a suspicion of contraband.
Within the first fourteen (14) days of incarceration, inmates are permitted to receive 3- white pairs of socks, 3- white pocket-less t-shirts, 3- white pairs of underwear and 3- white wireless bra's. These items must be shipped to the facility from a distributor such as Walmart, Amazon, Kmart, etc. After the fourteen (14) day period, inmates will only be permitted to purchase these items from the inmate commissary system.
Inmates are permitted to receive books in the mail from the publisher or distributor only. The following restrictions apply to magazines, newspapers, periodicals, books and letters:
• can not cause a security concern;
• can not contain instructions for the manufacture of explosives, drugs or other unlawful substances or devices;
• can not deal with escape, disappearing, etc.;
• can not advocate violence, in general, or within the institution;
• can not advocate racial, religious or national hatred;
• is contrary to legitimate penological interests;
• can not contain sexually explicit material or photographs;
• can not contain stickers, postage stamps or pre-paid stamped envelopes;
• can not contain polaroid pictures;
• can not contain musical devices, metal objects, hard substances, food or any other item which is not pictorial form;
• can not contain anything that would have to be destroyed to be properly screened;
• can not contain oversized objects (i.e. larger than 8 ½ by 11 inches);
• can not contain third party correspondence
To deposit money, simply create an account by visiting www.jailatm.com. You will be prompted through the process in minutes. Once you have an account, find the facility, enter your loved one's name, and deposit money using your credit card.
You can also deposit money into their account via cash or credit card by visiting the kiosk in the prison lobby.
These funds can be used to purchase commissary items, tablet items, and phone calls.
ICSolutions provides prepaid phone services which keeps you connected with your loved ones. ICSolutions offers two options when it comes to prepaid phone services which are Prepaid Accounts and Debit Telephone Accounts. To get started you can simply create an account online at www.icsolutions.com and purchase your desired prepaid phone service. Another option is contacting their Customer Care Representatives, 24 hours a day, at 1-888-506-8407 to create an account and purchase phone services.
Adding funds to this service only pertains to phone calls.
There is no limit on the amount of correspondences an inmate may receive or send. If mail is not properly addressed it will not be delivered to the inmate.
When sending personal correspondences to an inmate, please be sure to address the envelope as follows:
Senders Full Name
Full Address
Inmate's Full Name
Warren County Prison
407 Market Street
Warren, PA 16365


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This article is more than 1 year old
EMC shows off XtremIO's Project X box
Enters the million-IOPS club with all-flash array
VMworld 2012 EMC has shown off an early version of the all-flash array it acquired when hoovering up XtremIO earlier this year.
Project X, as the array is known for now, has been revealed as a 4U tall beast that packs not one but two controllers, described by re-badged XtremIO-ers as "basically Intel servers". Each packs a pair of un-named Intel CPUs, so that each of the drives in the unit have almost all of a core's power dedicated to their every whim.
As previously foreshadowed by The Reg, the all-MLC flash arrays also offer four eight-gig fibre channel ports and the same number of ten gig Ethernet connections. Up to eight of the machines can be clustered, thanks to Infiniband, but each time you add another box you need to buy the whole rig, controllers and all. That's expensive, but EMC says it's necessary to keep IOPS and capacity scaling together.
The array has deduplication baked in and during the demo we witnessed claimed 2600% dedupe rates. The dedupe is global, inline, always on and is said to extend SSD lifespans by reducing the rate of writes to each drive.
The software responsible for those tricks, like everything else in the boxes, comes from the XtremIO side of the house: no legacy EMC code pollutes Project X's innards. That could leave sceptics to wonder about the quality of Avamar and the dedupe code residing in Data Domain kit.
EMC won't have your thoughts drifting in that cynical direction. The message is that to build a proper flash array with thin provisioning, snapshots, and all the whistles and bells you would expect to find in a "proper" array (subtext: all those other flash startups are toys) one needs to rebuild everything from the ground up. And yes, the Project X box does have thin provisioning and can do snapshots.
EMC XtremIO's Project X all-flash arrays in an attractive rack with a mesh door
The presence of those features means EMC is keen to portray Project X as a mainstream array capable of doing anything a mainstream array does, just with hot sand inside rather than spinning rust. To that end the company demonstrated a cluster of four X-bricks, as the arrays are each known, humming along at 400,000 IOPS when performing OLTP queries, and a cool million IOPS when performing random reads.
Virtual desktop infrastructure is a hoped-for customer magnet, and seems a decent chance of proving so as the demo also featured 100 virtual Windows desktops being awoken in under ten seconds. That awakening is even more noteworthy because the VMs were dormant, not booting up.
The ability to suspend VMs has been enabled thanks to the arrays' speed, as EMC feels that suspending many virtual desktops simultaneously slams a conventional SAN as it is asked to write all the systems' RAM to spinning rust. With only flash to worry about, the company feels would-be VDI users can expect a better experience.
The price of the new machines was not disclosed or even discussed, but a likely release date of somewhere in the first half of 2013 remains on EMC's agenda. ®


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Media Mantra: It's "Congress" That's Historically Unproductive, Not The GOP
Written by Eric Boehlert
As the calendar races towards 2014, and Congressional members log their final few days in session while facing daunting deadlines for a long list of pressing and unfinished initiatives, the press has been busy chronicling the futility, assigning collective blame, and giving the president permanent failing marks.
According to historians, 2013 is on track to become the least productive single legislative year in modern American history. And it's not even close. In 1995, 88 laws were passed, setting the previous low-water mark. This year, it's doubtful 70 will make it to the president's desk. (And lots of the bills that have passed are ceremonial or rather trivial in nature.) The press is not happy about the trend.
"The paltry number of bills Congress has passed into law this year paints a vivid picture of just how bad the gridlock has been for lawmakers," announced NBC. The Wall Street Journal noted this year's session has been "long on partisanship, indecision and brinkmanship." USA Today bemoaned the inability "to find common ground." And the Los Angeles Times pointed to "partisan dysfunction" as the main Congressional culprit.
See? "Congress" remains in the grips of "gridlock" and "brinkmanship." Congress just can't find "common ground" and suffers from serious "dysfunction."
So that's why immigration reform, the farm bill, a budget deal, unemployment benefit extensions, workplace discrimination legislation, and the defense spending bill haven't been passed or dealt with yet? And that's why the government was shutdown for 16 days in October?
Bipartisan gridlock!
Wrong. The current Congress obliterated all previous records for diminished output because the Republican Party, and especially those in the Republican-run House, purposefully bottled up as many initiatives as possible and unleashed "procedural sabotage." (They even obstructed disaster relief aid for victim of Hurricane Sandy.)
Yet eager to maintain a political symmetry in which both sides are equally responsible for so little getting accomplished, the press gives Republicans a pass for their purposeful dysfunction.
By the way, are you also experiencing media flashbacks to the government shutdown, which the Republican Party proudly engineered by reneging on a budget deal they had agreed to with the last-minute demand that Obama essentially repeal his signature legislative accomplishment of his first term, the Affordable Care Act? Back then, the one-sided shutdown maneuver was nearly universally portrayed as bipartisan "Washington dysfunction at its absolute worst" (ABC News), a "partisan logjam" (Wall Street Journal), and a "fiscal stalemate" (The Hill).
Yet today, even as some Republican members brag about how little they've allowed Congress to accomplish, even as a plurality of voters says the GOP's top priority is to cause trouble for the president, while a majority blame Republicans for the lack of productivity in Washington, the press still prefers to portray the Capitol Hill standstill as bipartisan "gridlock."
Because, of course, both sides are always to blame.
But they're not. Look at the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. In a rare example of fleeting bipartisanship, the bill to prohibit most employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation was approved by the Senate 64-32 last month. In the House, there are more than enough votes from both parties to pass ENDA into law, but Speaker of the House John Boehner will not allow a vote.
The same goes for immigration reform. It passed by an even larger margin in the Senate (68-32), and likely enjoys even more bipartisan support in the House. But again, Boehner won't allow members to vote on the bill. He won't even allow the House to enter into negotiations with the Senate to try to hammer out a final bill.
So how is it "gridlock" when a bipartisan, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a clear bipartisan majority in the House support a bill but aren't allowed to vote on its final passage?
Politically, the sabotage strategy works for Republicans. At least in the short term. Note that Obama's standing among Hispanic voters has dropped precipitously this year. Analysts assume that's because Obama hasn't delivered on his promise to pass immigration reform. That may also be because so little of the news coverage stresses the poignant fact that the bipartisan votes are there to pass immigration reform, it's just that Republican leaders in the House won't allow the "yes" vote to take place. They won't allow Obama to take credit for passing a popular law.
And yes, it really did become a scorched-earth situation this year; a nearly across-the-board effort to sabotage Obama's every move. Republicans aren't just denying the president the ability to sign meaningful bills into law. The unprecedented minority strategy includes hardcore attempts to block his cabinet picks, executive branch appointments, and judicial nominees. And specifically, blocking judicial nominees who Republicans agree are completely qualified to sit on the federal bench.
But still unsure what the call the Republican brand of anarchy, the press continues to play dumb about the magnitude of the planned interference. For instance, amidst the sabotage, the New York Times reported that while judicial nominations remain an issue of deep contention, "Among senators of both parties, there is agreement that a president should be granted deference in picking members of his cabinet and top executive branch positions."
Last November, Republicans launched an unprecedented, preemptive campaign to make sure Susan Rice was not picked as Obama's next Secretary of State. Then they engineered an unprecedented campaign to try to stop Republican Chuck Hagel from becoming Secretary of Defense. And as late as July, two of Obama's nominated cabinet picks still hadn't received votes in the Senate, thanks to determined obstruction.
So no, contrary to the Times reporting there is no widespread agreement that presidents should be able to pick their cabinet members and top executive branch positions. There used to be. Then Republicans ripped up that pact. The Times and others just won't say so as they blame both sides for a do-nothing Congress.


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Player of the Week: Jeff Carter
Proving once again that he is one of the elite goal-scorers in the game today, Jeff Carter has had a hot hand recently.
It has been a resurgent season for Los Angeles Kings forward Jeff Carter. Following an up-and-down 2011-12 campaign that saw him get traded from the Columbus Blue Jackets to the Kings, where he captured a Stanley Cup, Jeff is second overall in scoring this season with 18 goals and has an impressive six game-winning-goals, ranking first. The Kings have won two games in a row and four of the last six and now sit in fourth spot in the tight Western Conference standings. At 6'4, 199 lbs, not only is Jeff a versatile forward, capable of playing both center and the wing, but his size and strength allow him to wear down his opponents. His powerful shot can fool any of the league's elite goaltenders and has been instrumental in helping him amass 220 career NHL goals.
The 28 year-old, London, Ont. native has encountered his fair share of adversity over his lengthy professional career. Despite various injuries, he has been able to persevere and continually play an important role on all of the teams he has been a part with this season being no exception. Jeff is looking to help the Kings repeat as Stanley Cup Champions, which is no small feat, considering the last team to accomplish this was the 1997 & 1998 Detroit Red Wings who won back-to-back titles.
- Internationally, Jeff has represented Canada at various levels of competition, including the World Junior Championships and World Under-18 Championships where we captured gold medals.
- Jeff played in all of the Kings' 20 playoff games in 2011-12 recording 8 goals and 5 assists for 13 points on route his, and the team's first Stanley Cup title
- In February, 2012 he was traded from the Columbus Blue Jackets to the Los Angeles Kings for Jack Johnson and a conditional first-round draft pick in either 2012 or 2013
- Born in London, Ontario on January 1, 1985
- Drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1st round, 11th overall in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft
- Played four seasons with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League (2001-2005)
- Won the Calder Cup in 2005 with the Flyers' American Hockey League affiliate Philadelphia Phantoms
- Was named to his first NHL All-Star Game in 2008-09


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The CITES meeting is underway in Qatar this week, with 175 member nations struggling to regulate international trade in everything from Atlantic bluefin tuna to elephant ivory, plus all kinds of other important stuff.
Getting less attention, but nevertheless interesting, is the story of the Kaiser's spotted newt, an Iranian salamander. The species is critically endangered in the wild, believed to number fewer than 1,000 mature individuals.
The little amphibian also illustrates a new conduit for danger for wildife: the internet. The species is avidly sought by pet by collectors and wildlife enthusiasts, and its numbers have declined by more than 80 percent in recent years. Now it's the first species under consideration for an Appendix I listing—the highest level of protection, which bans all commercial international trade in the species—under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Endangered Fauna and Flora (CITES).
WWF and TRAFFIC tell us that CITES governments will be considering whether or not to take a more proactive approach to regulating online trade, including:
- Creating an international database of the trade
- Implementing scientific research to gauge the correlation between wildlife loss and online trade
- Forging a closer collaboration with INTERPOL, the international law enforcement agency
In 2006, an investigation by TRAFFIC into the sale of Kaiser's spotted newts revealed 10 websites claiming to stock the species. One Ukrainian company claimed to have sold more than 200 wild-caught specimens in a single year. The problem is the internet connects sparse sellers with sparse buyers willing to pay $300 for a newt, amplifying the troubles for wildlife.


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- Home
- Living in Los Gatos
- Town Departments and Services
- Parks and Public Works
Parks and Public Works Department
Service with Dedication and Professionalism
Report a Parks and Public Works Concern
The Parks and Public Works Department (PPW) is responsible for the maintenance and improvements of the Town's public parks, facilities, streets, and other infrastructure. Our goal is to efficiently provide residents, businesses, and visitors with the highest quality service possible, with dedication and professionalism.
The Engineering team provides services in the area of encroachment permits and permitting and inspection of other work in the public right of way, including situations where new developments need to provide improvements in the right of way.
The Capital Projects team develops and constructs capital projects across all Town assets. This includes improvements to roads, streetlights, parks, and Town buildings. A list of current capital projects can be found in the annual capital budget.
The Streets and Signals team maintains the Town's roadways, signs, and traffic signals. Traffic plays a big part in this team's daily work as they seek to meet the needs of the community. This includes traffic on major streets as well as on neighborhood streets where traffic calming can be a solution.
The Parks team ensures the parks are well maintained and ready for use. The number of parks and the amount of open space in Los Gatos is part of what makes this such a wonderful community.
The Environmental Services team ensures that the Town is at the forefront of environmental stewardship. This team also manages the Town's utilities, including the contract with West Valley Collection and Recycling for garbage service Town wide.
Links to these and more services can be found on the left side of this screen.
Related Commissions
Complete Streets & Transportation Commission
Parks Commission


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Richard Prince's Cowboys at the Gagosian Gallery
Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present Richard Prince's Cowboy paintings.
Over the last thirty years, the American cowboy has given rise to some of Prince's most celebrated works. Dividing into several phases between the early 1980s and the present, his rephotographing of verité images inspired by cowboy Westerns and produced for the advertising industry, reveals as much about his shifting relationship to an American icon and its construction by the mass media as his use of evolving reprographic technologies.
In the earliest iterations, out of necessity Prince shot around advertising copy to obtain the final edit, resulting in tightly cropped, grainy close-ups of larger-than-life ranchers, printed in standard format. In the second stage, enhanced production techniques allowed him to substantially increase the scale and intensity of the final images, and move his subjects out into the landscape. In the third phase he was able to work from high quality images totally devoid of copy. Thus the cowboys were reduced to diminutive yet legible ciphers dwarfed by vast, bucolic American landscapes. Transposed into the world of art, these cinematic vistas evoked—not without a trace of irony—the great Romantic tradition in painting.
For his first Cowboy paintings, which follow earlier series of Nurse paintings, Prince has again tapped pulp fiction for inspiration. Directly inspired by the covers and cover artwork of so-called "frontier books," he has transferred to canvas greatly enlarged inkjet prints of scanned figures removed from their original settings. He then paints in, around, and over the prints in an uninhibited manner evocative of post-war American painting—from sedimentary layers and floating blocks of color to swipes and splatters of more animated moments.
At a glance, the Cowboy paintings are ironic appropriations intended to deconstruct both a regressive stereotype and the truth of uninhibited artistic gesture. But on closer scrutiny, there is an undeniable element of complicit pleasure in Prince's masterfully casual renderings of figure and ground where the powerful male gunslingers are little more than pretexts or catalysts for free experimentation with paint. Lush, lurid abstract grounds, rapidly executed, replace the information of the former landscape backgrounds, intimating at various atmospheric conditions or temperaments: the vaporous pastels of a midday summer haze; a rosy dawn or a vermilion sunset; the fresh green depths of a mountain landscape, or the ominous dark of night.
Richard Prince was born in 1949 in the Panama Canal Zone. His work has been the subject of major survey exhibitions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1992); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1993); Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (1993); Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2001, traveled to Kunsthalle Zurich and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg); Serpentine Gallery, London (2008); "Richard Prince: Spiritual America," Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2007 (traveled to The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2008); and "Richard Prince: American Prayer," an exhibition of American literature and ephemera from the artist's collection, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (2011).
Prince lives and works in New York.
For further information please contact Alexandra Magnuson at firstname.lastname@example.com or at +1.310.271.9400.
Please join the conversation with Gagosian Gallery on Twitter (@GagosianLA) and on Instagram (@gagosiangallery) via the hashtag #RichardPrinceCowboys
HOURS: Tue-Sat 10:00am-6:00pm
Gagosian Gallery was established in 1980 by Larry Gagosian.


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As an increasing number of questions have been raised about electronic documents and the ability to copy and distribute them, it became clear the institution needed to develop a statement on copyright. While informal policies existed the institution has never formally developed and approved a policy through faculty and/or administrative action. As an extension of Earlham's "Principles and Practices" and consistent with its philosophy, this document is intended to serve as a set of guidelines for students, faculty and staff of the college in their uses of copyrighted materials.
The purpose of the document is to provide a basis for guiding practice. The writers understand that the field of copyright law and interpretation of Fair Use is in great flux and we will not be able to write a definitive policy that will have much staying power. Instead, we have written what might be called guidelines that will need to be revised frequently as the legal landscape changes. As the appendix to this statement indicates, we believe that an educational program will be very important follow-up to the implementation of the guidelines.
The appropriate place for such a policy to be developed is the Information Technology Policy Committee (ITPC) –a faculty committee that includes representation from all segments of the on-campus community. In the summer of 2003 Information Services (IS) explored possible shapes for such a policy. Because so many institutions have developed such statements we did not want to start from scratch. In our exploration of other statements we were attracted to that of Princeton University. We liked the general approach the statement took and the statement was in many ways consonant with our own practices. Staff of IS created a version of the Princeton document that more accurately represented Earlham's current informal policies, was consistent with the authors' understanding of current law, and used language that is locally appropriate (e.g., college instead of university). The approach is to develop a document that focuses on the fair use provisions recognized in the law and vigorously apply them to our circumstances. ITPC revised the document during the fall semester 2003. What follows is the latest version to result from that revision process. ITPC expects that there will be further changes as the document is reviewed broadly on the campus. This introduction will be revised as the process goes forward.
– Mickey White and Tom Kirk, July 2005
1We wish to acknowledge Princeton University's "Guidelines for Instructional Use of Copyrighted Electronic and Multimedia Materials" that was the starting point for the development of this policy. Some language from the Princeton University Policy has been retained in this document. This version approved by ITPC on December 8, 2004.
2Principles and Practices. Richmond, IN: Earlham College, 2000. The Community Principles and Practices describes principles and practices that guide those of us who live and work at Earlham College and who form its campus community: students, teaching and administrative faculty, and staff. As well, College trustees, and many alumni and former employees of the College, feeling themselves still members of the community, choose to embrace these principles.
The staff members of Information Services support the basic objectives of Earlham College's policy for use of Intellectual Property as stated in Computing Resources Acceptable Use Policy.
The staff members will follow college policy and U.S. copyright law related to the use of electronic and multimedia materials. This includes the recording, reproducing, storing, and distribution of media-based instructional materials, such as: audio, video, and multimedia (combinations of data, text, sounds, and still and moving images that may also be modified interactively). All members of the college community are governed by these regulations.
Members of the college community who engage in any activity that infringes on copyright law may be subject to disciplinary action. Under circumstances involving repeated instances of infringement through the use of the College's computing network, such disciplinary action may include the termination or suspension of network privileges.
Members who are accused of infringement but who are also able to demonstrate to the college that they acted based on a reasonable application of this policy, Fair Use and copyright law will receive support from the college in defending themselves.
Further information about appropriate uses of college technology may be found at the Computing Services website. More information regarding copyright may be viewed at the United States Copyright Office website.
Individuals are liable for their own actions. The copyright law (Title 17, United States Code) sets strict limits on making copies of copyrighted works. Willfully exceeding these limits may subject the copier to liability for infringement with damages up to $100,000 per work.
Earlham College is not required to defend an individual who knowingly fails to comply with the College's Policy on Copying, fair use guidelines, and any licenses that affect the rights to use others' works. Information Services will not permit the duplication or use of any material submitted which is known or suspected not to meet the requirements of the guidelines. The College expects those using the materials to be familiar with the guidelines and abide by them.
Information Services Staff will assist faculty in evaluating instructional materials to identify those that fall within the "fair use" clauses of the copyright law. The "fair use" exemptions incorporated into the copyright law describe permitted educational uses of certain categories of copyrighted materials.
In some areas, particularly relating to electronic and multimedia materials, copyright law and fair use guidelines are unclear. As expected, challenges to the copyright law are being debated. Information Services staff will make every effort to provide common-sense interpretations of the existing law and guidelines.
When use of copyrighted material falls outside of the "fair use" guidelines or is more than quoting small sections of a source, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder. Electronic material supplied by the library must include a copyright statement. Other materials must contain a documented copyright permission statement or a "fair use" disclaimer statement as detailed in the specific guidelines below. Obtaining such permission is usually possible, if sufficient lead-time is allowed, although a fee may be involved. The length of this process varies and can take from a few days to many weeks, or can last for unexplained lengthy periods.
Copyright law protects certain exclusive rights of copyright holders for a set period of time, including the following rights: copying their works, making derivative works, distributing their works, and performing their works.
These rights exist from the moment a work is created, whether or not a copyright notice appears on the work. It is always best to assume that the provisions of copyright law protect materials being used for instructional purposes, unless the materials are explicitly identified as belonging in the public domain. In using copyrighted materials for instructional purposes, even under "fair use" guidelines, it is always wise to acknowledge the copyright owner in a very clear way. Academic honesty and its negative, plagiarism, are not issues of fair use. Academic honesty requires citing others' ideas.*
Copyright law does allow limited copying, distribution, and display of copyrighted works without the author's permission, under certain conditions known as "fair use."
The following is the full text of the fair use statute of the U. S. Copyright Act.
Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair Use Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified in that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.
Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair Use
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified in that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.
But note that the concept of "fair use" provides limited exemption, and does not encompass wholesale copying and distribution of copyrighted work for educational or any other purpose, without permission.
Copyright law does not specify the exact limitations of fair use. Instead, the law provides four interrelated standards or tests, which must be applied in each case to evaluate, whether the copying or distributing falls within the limited exemption of fair use.
Here are the four standards:
Further material on Fair Use is available from the library, which maintains reference sources on copyright and its current legal status.
Currently the following Web sites provide up-to-date and useful information. (Additions and deletions will be made as these become inactive or new resources become available.)
* For more information on plagiarism see Robert A. Harris. The Plagiarism Handbook. (Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publisher, 2001).
Following the "fair use" guidelines outlined above, segments of copyrighted electronic and multimedia materials may by captured, copied, digitized, transformed to another medium, or manipulated for educational purposes only, by members of the college community.
The holder of the copyright to each segment must be clearly and prominently acknowledged on or next to the digitized material, even when "fair use" guidelines are observed. (Citing a source from which a quotation is taken is considered proper acknowledgment.)
Segments of material may be incorporated into studies and projects for instructional and scholarly purposes. Permission must be sought to use materials in works, other than small excerpts that are used as quotations, that are circulated beyond the original educational setting (e.g., a class, faculty seminar, some recognized group organized for educational purposes) or that may have commercial application.
Collections of digitized images or multimedia segments that are designed for instructional or study purposes are limited under "fair use" to items directly related to teaching, learning, or research at Earlham.
Network access, including Web access, to Earlham College-created digitized study collections that include copyrighted material, is restricted to the Earlham campus network and those authorized to use the network. Such digitized collections are accessible temporarily and for instructional purposes only by the group of Earlham students and faculty for whom the material is intended. These collections are removed at the end of the academic term in which they were being used. Prominent notice must be given that such study materials may not be downloaded, retained, printed, shared, or modified, except as needed temporarily for specific academic assignments.
Faculty and students who create Web pages should respect the rights of copyright holders. Fair use exemptions to copyright law apply when personal or course Web pages are used exclusively for educational purposes. This may be done by acknowledging sources, restricting access through course management software or some other password-protected mechanism, obtaining permission or license for use, or some combination of all of these.
For students enrolled in a course at Earlham College, here are guidelines to follow before using the electronic or multimedia materials3 for study or for use in creating projects and writing papers.
The purpose of the Reserve Services of Lilly and Wildman libraries is to collect and maintain course-related materials for intensive student use. Both library-owned materials and those supplied by faculty members are processed for reserve by library staff. Policies on print reserves are below. The use of a course management system (e.g., Moodle) will provide the capability to provide controlled access to electronic forms of class material.
The U.S. copyright law grants to creators, such as authors and artists, the exclusive right to copy, distribute, and perform their work, as well as the right to create "derivative" works based on their original work.
But the law recognizes that scholarly work requires teachers, students, and researchers to reproduce and share pieces of original, copyrighted work for study and criticism. So, the law also allows a student to make limited use of copyrighted material for educational purposes. What follows provides guidelines for the legal use of electronic and multimedia materials:
In the course of study one must assume that copyright law protects all electronic and multimedia materials encountered, unless there is a specific reason to believe that they are in the public domain, the copyright holders will permit the item's use, or they are public domain government publications.
Students may read, examine, watch, and listen to electronic and/or multimedia materials in the library, classrooms, Instructional Technology and Media (ITAM) Center, on public computers and video monitors, and on personal equipment (television sets, computers) attached or authenticated to use the campus network.In general students may copy assigned multimedia materials for private study and/or research. However they may not actively distribute it or passively make it available for use by others without written permission of the copyright holder.
Students may copy small segments of electronic or multimedia material, and transfer the segments to another medium (e.g. from videotape to digitized form), if they use the materials in a project or paper that has been assigned to meet the requirements of an Earlham College course or that is part of an independent work project or paper for which Earlham College credit is received. There is no legal definition of "small," but the segments copied should represent only a fraction of the original work. The work must be given due credit through a citation to the source.
Students may manipulate these small segments (that is, change their look or sound) only for purposes of study or criticism. They must clearly state what changes have been made to the original.
Students must obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) to make extensive use of copyrighted material beyond the fair use guidelines on page 3, or to share the material beyond the class, or to create a new work.
3 Multimedia materials are combinations of data, texts, still images, animations, moving images, and sounds. Multimedia materials may be found on videotapes, audiotapes, and laserdiscs. Digitized multimedia materials may reside on floppy disks, CD-ROMs, digital tapes, and the hard disks of networked computer servers, including World Wide Web servers.
The Center for Academic Enrichment provides digital or audio recorded forms of texts required for college-related work or when a student or employee demonstrates ownership by presenting a print copy of the texts.
Copyright law provides specific rights to copy materials and distribute it to those with disabilities, for college related work. The person with disabilities is responsible for obtaining permission or ownership of the materials before any format conversion or duplication may begin.


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Strategies to Answer This Tough Interview Question
"What motivates you?" is one of those tough interview questions where your answer will depend on your background and experiences. This soul-searching interview question can really catch you off guard unless you've thought about it before the interview. Contemplating when you have been most satisfied in your career will not only help you answer this question, but it will also help you focus on what you want in your next job. Two candidates answer the motivation question, reflecting their values and what is important to them. The first one says, "In my previous job, I worked directly with customers and their problems. What I liked was solving problems and helping people. Sometimes it took a lot of effort on my part, but it was very rewarding when the customer appreciated the service." This interview answer reflects the candidate's interest in helping people and the satisfaction he gets in finding solutions. The second candidate says, "Two years ago, I was involved in a project I was really excited about. The team I was working with had to come up with innovative ways to market a product that was not received well by consumers. It took lots of effort and long meetings, but we met our deadline and launched a terrific marketing campaign. It was really a motivating experience." This candidate likes thinking outside the box and being part of a team. He loves a challenge and works well with pressure and deadlines. Prepare Your Script Writing out your thoughts will help you think about times when you felt energized by your work, times when you looked forward to going to work. For a source of ideas, refer to your resume. Which tasks did you list? Were they the tasks you enjoyed most and felt most motivated doing? A statement on your resume might be:
What was it that was motivating about this experience? Being in charge? Being the source of information? Controlling the flow of work? Making sure the standards were in line with your work values? By making a list of motivating experiences from your last two or three jobs, you will begin to see patterns of projects and tasks that stand out. Analyze what you did before. Do you want more of this type of responsibility in your next job? The answers to these questions will give you insight into what stimulates you as well as possibilities for fulfillment in future jobs with similar responsibilities. Additionally, by focusing on times when you were energized by your work, you may become more enthusiastic about the job you are seeking. There is no such thing as the perfect answer to the motivation question. Your answer will be based on your own individual experiences and analysis. Ultimately, this exercise will help you reveal to the interviewer what turns you on in your work. Even if you are not asked this question, your preinterview thinking, analysis and scripting will help you be more focused, projet more interview confidence and be more in control of what you want in your next job. |
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What Motivates You?
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By : Reuters l Reporting by Muyu Xu in BEIJING, Koustav Samanta and Florence Tan in SINGAPORE l Editing by Christian Schmollinger | July 25, 2019


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This article is more than 1 year old
MySpace for adults touts 18+ credentials
A predictable new MySpace-alike has been launched, this time targeting the adult market.
The company behind Utherverse.com is trumpeting that only those over 18 will be allowed to sign up, side-stepping increasing concerns from parents about their offspring being exposed to lurking paedophiles on the popular Murdoch-owned social network.
Purely in the cause of investigation, we checked out the sign up process for Utherverse. The T&Cs check-box links to a page which says you should be 18+ - and that's it.
Chief executive Brian Shuster said the firm would use credit card age verification for its paid services - although the social networking side of the site is free. He said the company employs site monitors who scour the site for posts from minors.
The owners hope to have one million signed up by the end of the year, Reuters reports. ®


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You want me. You know you want me. |
Also from this angle, you still want me. |
For the record, I do not like the white buns! I like the pork, straight-up. Although, full disclosure, I like a less sweet shredded pork even better.
Specifically what
he picked was "Nancy Stekl's barbecue pork sliders," which our beloved and
generous neighbor brings to every potluck—on an enormous platter—while I'm busy
trying to force the entire neighborhood to choke down whatever turnip-spelt
concoction our farm share has led me too.
teenagers + bbq pork sliders = good |
Why Nancy, that *is* hopelessly lame! I'm kidding. What it is is brilliantly simple.
Why is your pork wearing an elastic obstetric panty? I don't know. |
Okay, the truth is, I *do* know. Out of its panty, the pork is not attractive. Just rub it down with the spice mixture, and try not to think about it too much. |
"Ma, ma, it's too crowded in here!" I actually ended up doing this whole batch in the Dutch oven in a 300 oven for 5 hours. Unless your crock pot is huge, you cannot double the recipe, it turns out. |
When it was done cooking, but not yet shredded, it looked like this. |
Makes 4-8 servings, depending on a lot of factors, including how many teenagers are eating with you and whether any of them are vegetarians. (I made bbq tofu sliders too! I don't have as much to say about them, in truth, but they were pretty good.) This is my very basic $15 slow cooker.


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Outcrowd Woking – May 2018
11 May 2018 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Come and join us at Outcrowd this month at The Maybury Centre Woking
The Maybury Centre, 27 Board School Road, Woking, Surrey, GU21 5HD
Outcrowd is a safe, inclusive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT+) people and those questioning their sexuality and gender identity.
The location is fully wheelchair accessible and has disabled toilet facilities.
Tea/Coffee/Squash and biscuits will be provided. A donation towards this would be welcome to cover the cost of the refreshments.
Free entry. Everyone is welcome.
Check out the website for more info:
The guest list for this event on Facebook is anonymous but the wall is not. Outcrowd is a non-profit project run entirely by volunteers from the charity Outline. Support Outline by texting LGBT44 £1 to 70070 and donate £1 now.


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Creative posters are just awesome. Earlier we posted different types of poster designs like minimal poster designs, awesome Poster designs, awe-Inspiring poster designs, vintage poster designs and many more and today we're rounded up creative poster designs for inspiration. Let's take a quick look at some creative poster designs to keep in mind when designing for next posters.
Poster Designs are great at getting people's attention as long as you don't make them too text heavy and you include an eye-catching most effective graphic in look-at-me colors.
So enjoy and let us know what do you think about this showcase.
You may be interested in the following modern trends related articles as well.
- 50 High Quality Free Fonts For Graphic Designers
- 55 Business Logo Design Inspiration #8
- 40 Beautiful Examples Of Dark Colors In Web Designs
- Professional Business Cards Design (32 Examples)
Please feel free to join us and you are always welcome to share your thoughts.
Don't forget to subscribe to our RSS-feed and follow us on Twitter — for recent updates and follow us on Google+ .
Creative Poster Designs (26 Inspiring Examples)
Poster design is the striking medium to convey your messages. It should convey the messages very creatively. Fix your audience. Choose your message. Less information is good. Concept is necessary. Meanwhile the concept itself explains everything.


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AIPAC on Trial
Steve Rosen was accused of spying. Now he accuses his former employer.
By Philip Giraldi
Reports of surfing porn sites and frequenting prostitutes are not what one expects to read about the leadership of Washington's most powerful foreign-policy lobby. But a bitter civil suit is bringing some of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's most sordid secrets to light. AIPAC is embroiled in a court battle with its former director of foreign-policy issues, Steven Rosen, who claims the committee first unfairly fired then slandered and libeled him for not exhibiting "the conduct that AIPAC expects from its employees." He is seeking damages totaling $20 million.
AIPAC has successfully limited the case to the defamation charge, but attempts to have the suit dismissed outright have failed. Defeat for AIPAC could have serious consequences beyond a sudden shortage of donors—including increasing demands that the group register as a foreign lobby. Even criminal charges related to passing classified information to Israel, an offense under the Espionage Act, could be in the offing. There is some prospect that the trial could spin out of control, with proliferating charges and counter-charges leading to the effective dismantling of AIPAC.
The betting is that Rosen might accept an out-of-court settlement for most of the money he is seeking. But there are also reports that relations between Rosen and his former employer have become so poisonous that reconciliation is impossible. AIPAC is trying to discredit Rosen completely and is gathering a defense fund of between $5 and $10 million in an attempt to salvage its reputation among the well-heeled donors who have until recently provided the group's $70 million annual budget.
Rosen and his AIPAC colleague Keith Weissman were charged under the Espionage Act in 2003 after the FBI made the case that they had obtained classified information from Pentagon employee Larry Franklin and passed it on to Israeli diplomats and to journalist Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post. In 2005, the two men were fired by AIPAC in spite of the group's initial pledges of support. The espionage trial dragged on until May 1, 2009, when it was finally dismissed after the government could not make its case in the face of adverse decisions by presiding judge T.S. Ellis, possibly acting under pressure from the White House to end the proceedings.
As the centerpiece of his spy-trial defense, Rosen had claimed that passing classified information obtained from government contacts was business as usual in Washington. He asked that high-level witnesses including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley, former Defense Department officials Paul D. Wolfowitz and Douglas J. Feith, and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage be called to testify that confidential materials were frequently given to AIPAC for discreet relay to the Israeli Embassy. Rosen's lawyers also demanded access to numerous government documents to assist them in making their case. Those documents themselves would have been classified, and prosecutors may have decided to abandon the case in the belief that more damage would be done by proceeding than by dropping it. Rosen and Weissman were not, however, either exonerated or acquitted, an indication that the government lawyers believed the prosecution to be a sound one.
Dismissing Rosen was a bad move by AIPAC, and he has since worked hard to get revenge. Recent moves and countermoves by Rosen and AIPAC have included a 260-page motion by the organization filed Nov. 8 that makes a case in some detail that Rosen engaged in espionage, while distancing AIPAC itself from any involvement. Rosen and Weissman are being painted as a rogue operation not sanctioned by their employer. The motion also includes a lengthy deposition of Rosen in which he describes his own sexual "experimentations" with both men and women, some of whom he encountered through Craigslist. Rosen also recounts how pornography was regularly viewed and stored on AIPAC computers by a number of senior employees, including Director Howard Kohr and his secretary, and claims AIPAC officials visited prostitutes.
Rosen is expected to counter AIPAC's filing with his own motion, and there will be an obligatory mediation session with the presiding judge in mid-January. The cycle of attacks and rebuttals has not helped AIPAC's reputation, already tarnished by the lengthy Rosen-Weissman spy trial that led to the lawsuit. There are reports that donations have declined by 15 percent, with a number of major contributors such as Haim Saban having opted instead to financially support Rosen, who insists that his betrayal by AIPAC's leadership was motivated by a desire to avoid criminal charges against its executives.
This effort to shield AIPAC's leadership was bolstered by a federal prosecutor who pressured the FBI to leave the group out of its investigation. Rosen tells the story in a July 2009 filing:
On February 17, 2005, only two weeks after awarding Mr. Rosen the $7,000 special bonus for excellence in job performance, the AIPAC Board of Directors placed him on involuntary leave. This was done immediately after AIPAC was threatened by the Justice Department in a meeting between AIPAC's counsel and its Executive Director Howard Kohr and federal prosecutors on February 15, 2005. There the lead federal prosecutor stated that, 'We could make real progress and get AIPAC out from under all of this,' if AIPAC showed more cooperation with the government. On February 16, 2005, AIPAC's counsel said that the lead federal prosecutor 'is fighting with the FBI to limit the investigation to Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman and to avoid expanding it.' This warning implied that AIPAC's Executive Director and the AIPAC organization as a whole could become targets.
There is a much bigger story lurking in the background, involving the regular provision of top-level classified information from AIPAC to the media and the Israeli government, but no one is quite sure how it might play out. The November AIPAC motion and the Rosen deposition inadvertently demonstrate the close ties between AIPAC and the Israeli Embassy in Washington, recording as they do the details of numerous meetings with diplomats and intelligence officers in which secret information was passed. For AIPAC to win its war of words with Rosen, it must demonstrate that he was indeed guilty of espionage "with a foreign country" while distancing itself from his activities and keeping Israel out of the story as far as possible.
Rosen, on the other hand, must turn the tables on AIPAC by proving that the organization collaborated in the collection and delivery of sensitive material to foreigners. He intends to replay the defense he had planned for his Espionage Act trial, asserting that passing classified information is a routine feature of life in Washington, particularly for those who work to advance Israel's interests. Rosen claims to have "about 180" documents that demonstrate that classified information was regularly collected by AIPAC and given to the Israeli Embassy with the full knowledge of the organization's executive director and other senior officials, something they have denied under oath. He also claims that depositions of FBI agents who questioned AIPAC officials will demonstrate that the collection and use of classified information was routine, generally known, and widely accepted within AIPAC.
Rosen has also indicated that he might broaden the inquiry. In September 2009, he filed a list of 48 prospective witnesses who might be called to testify. It included Douglas Bloomfield, Morris Amitay, Thomas Dine, Elliott Abrams, John Bolton, Martin Indyk, David Satterfield, Kenneth Pollack, Malcolm Hoenlein, and Abraham Foxman. All are major figures in the Israel lobby. Rosen may want to demonstrate that passing secrets to the Israeli government was standard operating procedure for many groups and individuals, not just AIPAC. The tactic would motivate those named and the organizations they represent to pressure AIPAC to settle the suit with Rosen whatever the cost.
What is ultimately at stake is the powerful mystique AIPAC derives from its status as a foreign lobby posing as a domestic lobby, an organization so untouchable that it does not have to register with the Justice Department or play by anyone's rules but its own. Even if the Obama administration opts not to prosecute any criminal activity that might be discovered, the exposure of trading in classified information would render disingenuous the argument that AIPAC should not have to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) because it only operates domestically and its focus is educational.
But those who see a dark future for AIPAC fail to reckon with its strengths, which include an endowment of $50 million that can be tapped in emergencies. It continues to wield considerable influence within the Obama administration and with Congress. AIPAC has connections deep inside the Justice Department that will make sure the organization is advised of every impending move against it. Those connections will do everything they can to impede any investigation that might lead to criminal charges or compel AIPAC to register under FARA.
Then there is the media's role—or rather, the lack of one. The mainstream press assiduously avoided the story of the Rosen-Weissman trial and has not reported on the Rosen-AIPAC suit, with the exception of a few brave souls like Jeff Stein in his Spy Talk column at the Washington Post. If the federal government prefers not to prosecute a clear violation of the law, and if the media does not report its failure to do so, then even the scandals brought to light by Rosen will be only a moment's distraction for America's most powerful, least accountable lobbying group.
Philip M. Giraldi, a former CIA officer, is executive director of the Council for the National Interest.


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I listened carefully to a black senior citizen who phoned into "Keeping it Real with Rev. Al Sharpton," a national radio show where I serve as a co-host. The caller suggested that we ignore the racists in America because we give them too much attention and it's a waste of our time.
When the caller hung up, I said I respectfully disagreed with her.
And I still do.
Years ago, a popular political pundit said: "The American people forget how quickly the American people forget."
And this is why we can't ignore bigotry and racially-inflammatory comments, especially when the racism and disrespect to President Barack Obama comes from a United States senator.
We must constantly remind African American people why it's important to vote and why it's crucial, now more than ever, to become involved in the political process.
Last month, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, told a racially-insensitive joke that insulted Obama — and black people on two continents –while attempting to poke fun at Obama's struggling website launch for the Affordable Care Act.
"You may have noticed that all the Nigerian email scammers have become a lot less active lately," Cruz told the audience. "They all have been hired to run the Obamacare website."
By using "Nigerian" in his warped wisecrack, was Cruz deliberately trying to link Obama to African scammers because Obama's father is African? Or was Cruz trying to fire up his radical conservative base by introducing Obama's African roots to the discussion of Obamacare?
Cruz insists it was just a joke. But last week we learned the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in the Cruz family.
A video surfaced recently that showed Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, a prominent pastor, telling a conservative Tea Party group that Obama should go "back to Chicago, back to Kenya."
COMMENTARY: Why We Can't Ignore Obama's Bigoted Critics was originally published on blackamericaweb.com


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I have been using 's SerialVersionUID Generator For NetBeans tool for a couple of years now. It used to be available for download from the NetBeans update site, but version 1.9.6 for NetBeans 6.9 has not been available. The current version for use with NetBeans 6.9 can be downloaded from here: eu-easyedu-netbeans-svuid-1.9.6.nbm
This fantastic plug-in is great for generating the serialVersionUID values as part of the Serializable interface contract. If you are doing work with Java Persistence API (JPA) you will definitely want this little plug-in to make your life easier.
- You will get a hint on the class about the missing serialVersionUID if you implement Serializable.
- Right-click on the class and pick from two options:
- Add default serialVersionUID
- Add generated serialVersionUID